


I'll Be The One If You Want Me To

by lesbianophelia



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, minor character death (same as in canon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 18:37:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1868184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianophelia/pseuds/lesbianophelia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"She joined his second grade class during the third month. She couldn’t have known that it was show and tell day when she started, obviously, because she didn’t bring anything." </p><p>Originally written for Prompts In Panem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Be The One If You Want Me To

She joined his second grade class during the third month. She couldn’t have known that it was show and tell day when she started, obviously, because she didn’t bring anything.

That didn’t spare her from having to participate. Of course, it didn’t. Nothing stopped Miss Trinket when she was determined to get something done, and Peeta has never seen her be anything but determined.

“Sing something!” their teacher had insisted. “Surely you know a song. Go on, show us!”

It took a bit more convincing, but Katniss had started to sing. She was quiet at first, but Miss Trinket told her that she had to be louder, and after that, she was.

And when she sang, even the birds stopped to listen.

It wasn’t until the end of the week that he worked up the courage to talk to her, and that was only really because they were the only two left after all the other kids have been picked up.

“Your song was nice,” he told her.

“Oh. Thank you,” Katniss said.

“My name is Peeta,” he offered, and she smiled at him.

“Katniss.”

“I know,” he says. They only introduced her to the class about a thousand times on her first day.“Are you waiting for your dad, too?”

“My mother,” she answered as she reached up to tug on one of her braids. “She’s usually here by now, though.”

It wasn’t her mother that came to get her. It was her father, in an old rusted white pick-up truck that she ran to, braids bouncing behind her. “Dad!” she called, climbing into the backseat.

He had been surprised when she remembered him at the last moment, rolling down her window and calling out a bye, Peeta!

That Monday, Peeta sat down beside her at lunch. She hadn’t even seemed to think twice about it, just introduced him to the mayor’s daughter.   
He offered her his extra roll and she had hesitated before she took it, but she did take it. It happened right then, he supposed, them becoming friends. Nothing else had to happen afterwards, really, they just stayed that way.

The summer between third and fourth grade, she learned how much he preferred her house to his. They spent the rest of their break in her back yard. He told her stories about his parents fighting and she responded in kind by telling him about the stories her father would tell her before bed.

It happened when they were fourteen. They were at Glimmer Morales’s fifteenth birthday party and were engaged in a rousing game of Truth or Dare. He’d be a liar if he didn’t say that his heart had pounded when Cato asked Katniss which boy she thought was the cutest.

It was stupid. He knew how stupid it was, but he needed her to say it was him.

She did the next best thing. “I changed my mind. I want a dare.”

Everyone groaned, but Katniss hadn’t tried to weasel her way out of a turn yet, so when Peeta insisted, they let her get another dare.

Cato wasn’t about to let go, though. “I dare you to kiss the boy you think is the cutest. On the lips.”

She had hesitated for a moment, but she was already sitting next to Peeta, so she only had to furrow her eyebrows a little bit in question. He nodded, maybe a little bit too eagerly. She didn’t act like she noticed, though. She just leaned over and pressed her lips to his.

And it was the best moment of his life so far, leading seamlessly into the worst one of hers.

  
He had barely had give minutes to revel in post-kissing joy before Katniss’ phone rang. She had sworn under her breath and then rushed out of the room to hear whatever it was that the other person was trying to tell her.

So many of their classmates came to the funeral. He stuck close to Katniss’ side during the eulogy, a thousand sentences sticking in his throat, none of them coming out.

“I’m sorry,” he finally managed to say, and even though he was holding onto her, he felt her slipping away.

  
She missed a week of school, and when she finally came back, she was more quiet than usual. In fact, she didn’t say anything during lunch unless Peeta or Madge drew it out of her.

“She needs time,” Madge assured him. “She’ll come back.”

It had been a month without her really speaking at lunch when he broke down and went to her house. She had answered the door with wet hair and a towel around her shoulders to keep the tee shirt that he suspects used to belong to her father dry.

“Can I help you with something?” she asked.

“Are you busy?”

She scowled at him. “A little. What do you want?”

He had wanted to tell her that it was bullshit that she was acting like they weren’t friends. But somehow, that didn’t seem like the right thing to say just then, so he tried to go another route.

“Katniss,” he said, but it was just as little footsteps started to come from behind her. Her little sister blinked up at her, hair in two perfect braids, just the way Katniss used to wear them when he met her.

“Is everything okay?” Prim asked.

“Hey, Prim,” Peeta said, drawing a small smile out of the little girl.

“Everything is fine,” Katniss said. “Go inside and wait for me, okay? I’ll be done in a minute.”

Prim hesitated but left. Katniss already angled herself away from him and towards the still-open doorway.

“Where’s your mother?” he asked, because now that he was thinking about it, Prim always wore her hair down and Katniss never answered the door. Or went without drying her hair, for that matter.

Katniss hesitated. “Look, is there anything you needed?”

“No,” he answered, but when she reached to shut the door, he knew that he might not get another chance, so he reached for her hand. “I want to help.”

This made her pause. She didn’t pull her hand away, at least, which he took to be a good sign. “You said you were sorry.”

“I am sorry,” Peeta said.

“But you were …” she trailed off then, shaking her head and looking away from him. Probably to hide the tears that he was pretending not to notice. “You were the only person I thought could come up with something better than I’m sorry.”

He frowned. “But that’s what you say at funerals. Everyone was sorry.”

“Sure. Sure everyone was sorry, but since when have you ever been part of everyone?” Katniss asked, and then he couldn’t help himself but to wrap his arms around her. Honestly, he was surprised when she didn’t pull away. She didn’t exactly cry into his shoulder, but she stayed there for a long moment until her breathing evened out.

“I’m sorry,” he finally murmured into her hair. “That’s probably actually the worst thing I could say. But I am.”

She let out a funny sort of breathless laugh.

“I miss you,” he told her, and she swallowed hard.

“You really wanna help?” she asked. “Cause there’s plenty of time to catch up while I make Prim’s dinner.”

“You’ll allow it, then?” he asked, and she took him completely by surprise by stretching up on her tiptoes and kissing him on the cheek.

“I missed you, too. Of course I’ll allow it.”


End file.
